Has to be said. Ralph is the best. He brings so much joy and sincerity to these shows. His collection is amazing. He ALWAYS has his "show and tell" stuff ready to share, which tells me he loves to be prepared. Great job as always, Count!

Without any disrespect to the others who are all great, but Ralph is the BY FAR the most valuable asset to this show. His knowledge of literary EVERYTHING adds so much historical depth to this show. His excessive amount of memorabilia adds something special that no one else can even come close to replicating. RALPH, you are AMAZING!

The Counts picks was like watching The Curse Of The Collector. 😂

😆I love the theory on Paul being a regular at Charlotte The Harlot's and lover boy Bruce coming in to rescue her from Paul and the underworld. Classic!!

four classics, but i'll go... 1. Iron Maiden 2. Kill 'Em All 3. Holy Diver 4. On Through the Night

1. Holy Diver 2. Iron Maiden 3. Kill Em All 4. On Through The Night

Ryan's Steve cut- out destroys me every random time it pops up.

Gotta go with Def Leppard On Through the Night as my number 4. Metallica Kill ‘em All as my 3. Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden as my 2. DIO Holy Diver as my 1. I gotta say when I saw the video Rainbow In the Dark on MTV it absolutely rocked my world. Ronnie singing towards the heavens on a downtown rooftop. Love it🤘Still my favorite DIO song to this day.

1. Maiden 2. Holy Diver 3. On through the night 4. Kill em all

Have all 4 original vinyls from the year they were released. Hard one to choose! But it is Def Leppard that gets my nr 1 vote. Answer to the master, overture, when the walls came tumbling down. Just timeless epic masterpieces. Doesn’t get much better. Nr2 : Maiden, still my favourite by them, most played. Still get the same vibes as when I first heard this!

I was just listening to Iron Maiden’s debut album earlier at the gym today along with Motörhead’s debut and Judas Priest’s Rocka Rolla

Show idea: HVS Storytellers. Pick three items from your collection of albums, ticket stubs, T-shirts or whatever and tell their stories.

1. Holy Diver: "Rainbow" was done to death but the guitar work even on that track stands the test of time. 2. Kill 'Em All: A pure revelation, dawn of a new order, although "Lightning" was my first Metallica purchase. 3. Iron Maiden: It's good, but in my world the institution that is Maiden began with Bruce. 4. On Through The Night: I've actually got the original cassette in my vault, probably read something in Circus magazine about it, but didn't play it much after a few listens. I think I will go back and listen to it tonight.

1) Dio 2) Def Leppard 3) Iron Maiden 4) Metallica

Wow! I have original vinyl of all four. Yes I'm an old Rocker.

Another great show and discussion! I love all four of these Debut albums and I did not need to refresh my memories with these because they are still in rotation and know them inside and out! and bought these in real time. but if I have to rank 'em here we go... 4. DIO - Holy Diver I didn't love this as much as his previous albums with Sabbath and Rainbow, but still a great album! 3. Metallica - Kill 'Em All I was blown away by this! heard Seek And Destroy on WMSC Radio and went out the next day! 2. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden I bought this in September of 1980 with my birthday money along with my #1 pick just for the album covers and my life was changed FOREVER! 1. Def Leppard - On Through The Night Still my favorite Def Lep album! Just love it! Great memories!!! Maiden comes in at #2 because Killers is my Favorite.

All killer albums, here's my list: 4. Def Leppard - On Through The Night 3. Dio - Holy Diver 2. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden 1. Metallica - Kill Em All

4. On Through The Night, 3. Kill 'Em All, 2. Iron Maiden, 1. Holy Diver

Agree with Ryan. Maiden were the poster child for Nwobhm and the debut influenced that whole genre

Although a huge Dio fan, Kill Em All was new, fresh and took everyone by surprise.

On through the night was one of the 10 records I ordered (cover art influence) with my first Columbia Record House mail order deal. Definitely holds a special place in my heart. Never cared for or got Metallica. Maiden and Dio next for me.

Just throwin it out there Count Ralfus Metallica shirt is probably the oldest of the old school Metallica shirt I've ever seen....Love it.

Album ranking / war rules. You guys/ gal crushed it. 1-Dio. 2- Metallica 3- Iron MAIDEN. 4- Def LEPPARD/ but love all 4. 👍💯

Blue Oyster Cult especially in the Black & White era had not only cool album covers but the crazy song titles drew me in.

#1 Kill em All #2 Holy Diver #3 Iron Maiden #4 On through the Night

Wow this is the hardest yet on here. except number 4 # 1. Maiden 2. Kill 3. On through 4. Holy

1. Iron Maiden 2. Holy Diver 3. On Through the Night 4. Kill 'em All

Thanks for taking my suggestion Pete! I would rank them…. 1. On through the night 2.Iron Maiden 3. Holy diver 4. Kill ‘em all I like them all almost equally except kill ‘‘em all . I never really got into Metallica very much.

This is a tough one!

Dio, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Metallica.

Had them all as brand new releases (yep , I am old, 60). All great. Saw Def Leppard on tha tour with Ted Nugent, but didn’t see Maiden until POM in ‘83 and Metallica till ‘88. Dio had seen on Heaven and Hell tour. This ranking is easy for me 1) Iron Maiden 2) Kill em All 3) Holy Diver 4) On Through The Night

I'm with Craig and Rob. "Rainbow in the Dark" is my least favorite song from Dio's 'Holy Diver,' too. Also, Metallica's 'Kill 'Em All' is the best thing they ever did!

1. Kill ‘Em All 2. Holy Diver 3. Iron Maiden 4. On through the Night

I have a long history with all 4 of these albums and love all of them!!! The memories!

Kill 'Em All is definitely my favorite of these four, but Holy Diver is also quite badass. On Through the Night is solid, but Def Leppard hadn't quite found their sound yet - a decent but kind of generic hard rock/metal album. The self-titled debut from Maiden is great but one of my least favorites; they got much better on Killers!

1. DIO - Holy Diver 2. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden 3. Def Leppard - On Through The Night 4. Metallica - Metallica

Love‘em all, but for me its 4 kill em all 3 on through the Night 2 Iron Maiden 1 Holy Diver

All tremendous albums, looking forward to this!!! 🔥🔥

New show idea: Songs/bands that made our parents say "is my child ok/ what the f**k is this noise" when they first heard their kids playing it.

A distinct, dense visual aesthetic usually indicates that a recording artist has a lot to say (or more to say than their peers...). It isn't a mystery why so many acclaimed albums/artists have such memorable, striking covers: there was a lot of creativity going into that recording session!

1. Dio - Holy Diver Heads and shoulders above the other three. The riffs are there, the melodies and the lyrics, and the vocals are superior. 2. Metallica - Kill 'Em All This one for me barely edges out Iron Maiden despite the adolescent lyrics, save for The Four Horsemen and No Remorse. 3. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden Phantom of The Opera is as good as any of the top songs from the top 2 albums and Remember Tomorrow, Running Free and Charlotte The Harlot are great as well. 4. Def Leppard - On Through The Night Well, I've never been much of a DL fan. Always remember, kids: Harder, faster, louder doesn't necessarily mean "better."

That Dio album is cheese. Haaawwwuly daaaivvahhhh!

4. Def Leppard, 3. Metallica, 2. Iron Maiden, 1. Dio

I bought Testament's Souls of Black based on the cover art and I still love that album; even if critics don't.

Brilliant show as always.

Robert I saw Maiden with Diano at a college gig back in the day in Manchester, they were new to the north of England because Maiden played so many gigs in London they were ok but not brilliant . Maybe his appearance put people off 😂.😂

1. Dio holy diver 2. Iron maiden iron maiden 3. Metallica kill em all 4. Def leppard on through the night.

1- . Iron Maiden 2.- MeTallica - Kill 'Em All 3-. Dio - Holy Diver 4-. Def Leppard - On Through the Night

When these albums came out, I only had the Dio one. I was late to the other bands, other than hearing "Rock Brigade" on the radio. At this point, I would rate them like this: 1) Def Leppard (the riffs on this are great, my favorite Leppard) 2) Iron Maiden (my favorite Maiden, guess I really like Dennis Stratton) 3) Dio (was really into this at the time, don't really play it now) 4) Metallica (my favorite Metallica, but I'm not that big a fan of them)

So fun. Great discussion

I agree with Ralph. I made my list based on what I believed was genre-changing/influencing. Metallica and Iron Maiden changed the genres. The other albums are still great (I’ve owned all of them since ‘83), but that’s how I determined the order.

Maiden's by far my favorite band of the four, but gotta go: 1. Kill 'Em All 2. Iron Maiden 3. Holy Diver 4. On Through the Night

Great episode as always .. Canzoneri always reminds of a mob turncoat in disguise doing an A& E documentary in the 90’s 😂

1. Iron Maiden Iron Maiden 2. Kill Em All Metallica 3. On Through The Night Def Leppard 4. Holy Diver Dio

Camp save a ho brilliant👍👍

1. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (The debut & Killers remain my favorite Maiden albums). 2. DIO - Holy Diver. 3. Metallica - Kill 'Em All. 4. Def Leppard - On Through the Night (not a fan of theirs to begin with).

First, mainly for Karen, from the chat - Venom's Warhead. The late, great, dj Tommy Vance who presented the Friday Rock Show in those days said he'd pay £100 to charity if Mike Reid, who presented the breakfast show (from memory between 6 and 9 am) played it on his show. So, more a challenge than a laugh. But Mike Reid indeed took the challenge. In those days that would have been the most listened to radio show here in UK. Breakfast tv was only a year or so old so radio still very popular. My ranking - 4 Def Leppard 3 Metallica 2 Dio 1 Iron Maiden

My top four go in the way they were released Def Leppard Iron Maiden Metallica Dio..... all four are great but that's how I experienced them in order

Cover art is very important. Especially for collectors of physical product yeah

1) Holy Diver 2) On Through the Night 3) KIll Em All 4) Iron Maiden

Totally agree about the cover art, it definitely influenced me as a teenager. And if it ties in with the music, even better. Crap album art is a missed opportunity

DIO, IRON MAIDEN, DEF LEPPARD, METALLICA

All four are classics. I'm a tad younger than most of the panel. Here are mine in this order: 1. Metallica - Kill'em All ( Total game changer ) 2. Iron Maiden-Iron Maiden 3. Dio- Holy Diver 4. Def Leppard - On Through the Night.

For me it's 4. Def Loepard 3. Iron Maiden 2. Kill 'em All 1. Holy Diver.

Was a really fun episode although I'm feeling really old thinking how long ago these albums came out! 1 Iron Maiden 2 Def Leppard 3 Dio 4 Metallica

If I’m going with my own personal music tastes, then it can only be between Iron Maiden and Dio. However despite being a Dio die hard, I’m going with Maiden. The reason being is that Ronnie James Dio had already made his bones with Rainbow and Black Sabbath, he was already well known and therefore, had half the battle won already. The five lads from West Ham didn’t, they had to cut through from virtually a standing start…and it is such an epic album too.

DIO for Me

Iron Maiden Kill Em All Holy Diver On Through The Night

3 outta 4 of these albums are among my favorites of all time but I’d have to say : 4. Def Leppard On Through the Night 3. Dio Holy Diver 2. Metallica Kill em All 1. Iron Maiden First Album

1. Iron Maiden 2. On Through the Night 3. Kill ‘Em All

Took me a long time to get into black metal now I love it along with melodic death metal.

4. Metallica 3. Iron Maiden 2. Def Leppard 1. Dio

1 Metallica 2 Dio 3 Iron Maiden 4 Def Leppard

Tough selection, for me: 1. Iron Maiden 2. On Through the Night 3. Holy Diver 4. Kill 'Em All

4. Def Leppard 3. Dio 2. Metallica 1. Iron Maiden Very close between 1 & 2.

1. Iron Maiden (the American version with Sanctuary, my favorite Maiden song. Without Sanctuary, this album would be number 2) 2. Kill 'Em All 3. Holy Diver 4. On Through the Night

1. Kill em all, this album just blew me away when i was 13 was life changing after hearing this and Master of puppets man wow the black album is not really that good,lol 9.5/10 2. Iron Maiden, Awesome debut my favorite band for how strong their 80's output is i still go towards the other 6 albums is but that's damn near unstoppable in the 80's they were. 8.5/10 3. On Through the night, very good debut this album just keeps growing on me.8/10 4. Holy Diver, great album, besides the highlights the replay value is not a strong as the other 3 albums besides the hits i don't myself going back to it as much 7.5/10

1. Dio 2. Def Leppard 3.Iron Maiden 4. Metallica

My Ranking 1. Iron Maiden 2. Metallica 3. Dio 4. Def Leppard

I love all these albums. All faves since I was young. Still listen to all these. Here's my order: 1. Dio Holy Diver ( by a landslide) 2. Def Leppard On through the Night 3. Metallica Kill Em All 4. Iron Maiden

Easy 1. Kill `Em All 2. Iron Maiden 3. Holy Diver 4. On Through The Night

This is very easy for me. The only album I own, & I’ve heard, of the 4 is Iron Maiden’s debut. So I rank it no. 1, & the others I can’t rank since I’ve never heard them, & really don’t care about them. Actually the reason I decided to comment is last night I listened to the first half of this show. During the day I decided to listen to Maiden’s debut, which I downloaded a number of years ago. I already liked several of the songs because of their rawness. I’ve long been into raw, Hard Rock. For the first time I liked every song on the album. I thought, what if I heard it when it came out? I’ll get back to that. Then tonight I listened to the rest of the show. To my surprise some of the comments reflected my earlier thinking. So, my thinking as I listened to the album today… I was 20 when it came out. Had I heard it then, would it have made a difference? I might not have liked all the songs, but the rawness & hardness would have appealed to me. Had I heard it back way back then, it might have been the album that could have started me out in Metal. What happened in reality is the first time I heard Iron Maiden is when I heard 2 songs off Killers, one time, at the same time: “Wrathchild,” which I liked, & the instrumental. I saw the covers of the first 2 albums in a record store. They did not look like a band I’d be into, so I was not drawn into buying them. I mean they looked like a band named after a torture device, which was nothing I wanted to get into (literally or figuratively). I passed on them. I only really heard Maiden when The Number Of the Beast came out. I really liked the title song, but I didn’t like “Run To the Hills.” In fact it turned me off. Otherwise, mostly I didn’t think much of this new thing that was coming out (ie. Metal). So what I heard from Maiden in the early 80s was not enough to interest me in buying them. But had I heard the first or the second album in full, it could have been a different story.

I used to own all these albums and my favorite was the Iron Maiden debut. I ended up buying every new album they released up until the early 90's. I also saw them live with Judas Priest and Nantucket during the early 80's. They had the original lineup at the time. Loved Dio, but only bought a few Metallica albums. Funny thing about Def Leppard was after reading a lot about them before their debut was released, I did not care for their first album a whole lot. It almost kept me from buying "High and Dry" when it came out, but I am so glad I bought it. It sounded like a whole different band to me. I may have to give the debut DL album another listen though!

I’m old enough to remember all of these being released and some have more of a connection than others: 1. Iron Maiden ( the ‘shitty’ cover is the actual original cover that we had here in the UK) 2. On through the Night ( the singing is awful but the music is strong) 3. Dio (after his work with Rainbow and Sabbath I thought this was sub-standard) 4. Metallica (an overrated album that was overshadowed by what followed)

Got my list: 1. Iron Maiden This is my all-time favorite Maiden album. Killers is a very close second… so close, I might flip them if asked again at a later date. 2. Kill ‘em All Like several of you, I prefer Ride the Lightning. Kill ‘em All and Master of Puppets are my number 2 and 3, the order depending on my mood. 3. On Thru the Night Also like a few of you, I like High n Dry and Pyromania better. Def Leppard is just fun hard rock music. I kinda think of their stuff as great background rock music. 4. Holy Diver I know if I was on your round table I’d get thrashed for this (lol). But, in my defense, I’m not super familiar with Dio’s solo music. I heard the album a number of times in my youth, but haven’t heard it since, probably, the mid-to-late eighties. So, I might have this album higher if I listened to it again, today. I just never got into Dio cos I didn’t care for his voice decades back. - Fun caveat: In eight grade, our school had an end of year talent show. Me and 3 friends played Rainbow in the Dark… with no vocals! lol I play keyboards, so I did the synth (that makes the song a bit annoying after a few plays😂). Anyway, enjoyed the video!

4. Def Leppard On Though the Night. 3. Metallica Kill’em All 2. Iron Maiden 1. Dio Holy Diver

Metallica- Kill ‘Em All #1 Def Leppard- On Through The Night #2 DIO- Holy Diver #3 Iron Maiden : Iron Maiden #4

Kill em All was a game changer for me.. All are great albums but Metallica in the early mid 80s was unbeatable especially with Cliff.

What a fun battle! Here's my list, 1 as lowest: 1. Maiden 2. Leppard 3. Metallica 4. Dio I could easily change out the top two on any given day

Bought all new. Dio 4, Def 3, Maiden 2, Metallica 1 . Metallica changed everything

No List Just Killer Debuts🤘

1. DIO 2. Def Leppard 3. Iron Maiden 4. Metallica

Great video. You guys could do a million of these with 4 different albums. The only album here that doesn't do much for me is On Through the Night. It's Ok, but High & Dry is better and I really dig Pyromania. That album was my gateway into hard rock/heavy metal. The other 3 are all classics, but I have to go with Kill 'Em All as my #1. Going back to middle school in 84/85, that album blew my mind and I couldn't get enough of it. The speed really got me. Loved it. I believe this is before I got any Slayer. So, for me, Metallica was really my intro into the heavier thrash stuff. To this day, I'm still more into extreme metal than anything else. After Metallica, I got the Dio and Iron Maiden albums. Both are great, but Kill 'Em All really stands out for me, as far as this ranking goes. Overall Metallica, Master and Justice are my two favorites. 1. Metallica-Kill 'Em All 2. Dio-Holy Diver 3. Iron Maiden-Iron Maiden 4. Def Leppard-On Through the Night

Me to Ryan re Pyromania lol. I do like On Through The Night though.

My list! 1. Dio - Holy Diver 2. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden 3. Metallica - Kill Em All 4. Def Leppard - On Through the Night

1. On Through The Night. (Love it and their best) 2. Iron Maiden (Love it. 1 and 2 are close). 3. Dio. (A comparative recent listen. There best and like it alot). 4. Kill 'em All. (Don't like Metallica very much. One of the best things I done in my life is let a mate's copy of Master of Puppets record sit in the back seat if my car in the sun and let it melt.)

For me? 4. On Through The Night This album didn't stand much of a chance in this episode but it has great energy and memorable chourses. I think those who never heard it will be surprised of how fast and heavy it actually is. I don't listen to it often but always enjoy it when I do. 3. Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden Great riffs, great energy and some memorable songs. I do think the limited voice of Paul Di'Anno holds it back a bit and I do think Maiden would become better song writers overall. 2. Metallica - Kill 'Em All Very unique in my mind. I prefer the couple of other Metallica albums which came later but this stands out in their catalog and perhaps at all. Is there any other album by anyone which is very similar? 1. Dio - Holy Diver The great singer and as Pete stated.. A great follow-up to the Black Sabbath days. While some of the other albums might have flashier songs or instrumental parts. I find the overall quality of song writing very good on here! As good as the Rainbow/Black Sabbath albums before? Maybe!

1. Holy Diver 2, Iron Maiden 3. Kill Em All 4. On Through The Night

Another very enjoyable Hudson Valley Squares episode although because Dio had already done so many albums I’m not sure Holy Diver should be in the same category as the other three that were true debut albums (official). First to last for me is Iron Maiden, On Through the Night, Holy Diver and Kill ‘em All. I have all four on vinyl but I only heard the first two contemporary with their release, hopefully my nationality hasn’t affected my choice as I like plenty of American bands 🇬🇧

This was a really good show, for me it would be: 1. Iron Maiden 2. Metallica 3. Dio 4. Def Leppard